If you are thinking of starting a blog, there are a few more things you should take into consideration. Read on to find out all the details on what it takes to start your own blog.
If you’re thinking of starting your own blog, there are things to consider. It can be as easy as putting your thoughts into words, but if you want your blog to be seen and be successful, there are a few more things you should take into consideration. You can use WIX’s many tools and features, like the Title Generator, to make the blog that everyone wants to see. Read on to find out all the details on what it takes to start your own blog.
A brand
A brand starts with a title. It does more than even a name does. As well as identifying you, it should inform your readers, in a glance, what your blog is all about. It isn’t a moment to use an inside joke or pop-culture references like a gaming tag or band name. Internet users are impatient and will click off if they don’t instantly see something that appeals to them.
Before you even have the name, though, you will need a topic. Luckily there is a lot of freedom here. Whereas Instagram accounts are consistent with the content they post to gain traction, blogs are freer to explore various topics within a genre. You can stick to one topic or incorporate it into a more general genre, like focusing on healthy food or incorporating it into a lifestyle blog. You can center your blog around something as general as a city, a lifestyle or even yourself, or you can focus it solely on your pet, wedding, or a movement you’re passionate about. It is entirely up to you.
The next step in building your brand is to consider your graphics. The design of your website should reflect what you and your content stand for and aim for the same demographic. You should be able to get an idea of the content from a glance at the graphics. The colors and design you choose will affect the type of demographic you attract.
Keep your demographic in mind when you pick your design. If you’re appealing to people who like their high-end products and fashion, use block neutral tones to appeal to users who are looking for a chic aesthetic and invoke expense. For something more family-friendly, rainbow colors or pastel colors will promote a more relaxed and childish feeling. Take some inspiration from magazines and their design preferences if you’re stuck.
A passion for writing
It goes without saying that a passion for writing is a must-have when starting a blog, otherwise why bother? But we all know the feeling of staring at an empty Word document and wondering where to start. Too many ideas can be as guilty of causing writer’s block as too few.
If you’re having trouble landing on a topic, or genre, or just can’t think of what your first post should be, just start. Your topic will come to you eventually, having emerged naturally from the random rabble you’ve scribbled down. It doesn’t matter what you write before then. You can start by introducing yourself as a launching point. It might lead to something more substantial, it might lead to an “About me” section for your blog, or it might lead to a new topic, because if it interests you enough to mention it in a paragraph, it might interest you enough to write an entire post about.
If you were to start with something like, “My name is Alison and I live in Texas, and I like burgers for dinner,” before you know it, you will be writing about what interests you, and the topic of your first post will emerge. Maybe it’s there in that sentence. The experience of being a woman, the official authority of things to do in Texas, a culinary expert on how to make the best burgers.
If you’re still struggling there are writing exercises, topic generators, and plenty of other tools in the vast ocean that is the world wide web.
Some digital marketing knowledge
A more forgotten element of running a blog is marketing it. Whether you want to profit from your blog as a sustainable means of income or you just want your voice out there, you will need to learn to promote your blog. Like everything else on the internet, this is less a case of “build it and they will come” and more a case of new things being built every day and yours is one of them.
Marketing a blog is very much doable, with digital marketing more accessible, more effective, and cheaper than ever, but it will require some extra know-how beyond your content creation skills. You can take online courses or follow guides on digital marketing so that you know everything there is to know about search engine optimization, keyword research, affiliate marketing and more. Or you can download some tools to take a lot of work out of it.